


spinach and organ meats

by aninsidejoke (speakingincode)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, Pining, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Vampire AU, also no volleyball, also yamaguchi is a vampire and he wears a bucket hat to avoid the sun, these two things are very related, tsukishima is pining HARD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2019-09-11
Packaged: 2020-10-14 09:01:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20598173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speakingincode/pseuds/aninsidejoke
Summary: In the quiet moments when they’re in the same room, when Yamaguchi’s not paying attention to him and occupying the whole of his consciousness, the thought floats back to him. That as much as Yamaguchi’s somehow grown on him since they’ve met, the half a year where Yamaguchi forced himself into Tsukishima’s life and ingrained himself in it so deeply he can’t remember what it was like before, he’s still abnormal. Still peculiar. And still hiding something.Tsukishima’s never been the kind of person to pry into people’s business, never understood why people would be upset by someone they care about keeping secrets if it’s harmless or not something they need to know. Whatever happened to Yamaguchi, whatever’s happening to him, if he can handle it without his help, or if he prefers to, Tsukishima is fine with it. Tsukishima will let him.But he can’t stop himself from noticing.Or: Three months into his friendship with Tsukishima, Yamaguchi starts bringing him lunch every day. Tsukishima pretends it isn't weird.





	spinach and organ meats

**Author's Note:**

> this was a drabble request for [shan](https://twitter.com/HicksShannary)! which is.... eventually i will learn what a drabble is. but thanks for sending in a request, shan! this isn't the kind of thing i usually write but i had a lot of fun writing it, so i'm really glad i got the opportunity to 💕💕
> 
> hope you enjoy it!

It’s three months into Kei’s bizarre and immediate friendship (he has to call it that now) with Yamaguchi, and today he’s made him lunch.

It’s not normal, which Kei thinks Yamaguchi knows even though he’s almost sure he’s the first close friend he’s ever had, a fact he’s given away with his too-wide smiles and ever-present nervousness, as much as he tries to hide it.

Still. It’s almost painful watching Yamaguchi try to be casual about this; pulling a boxed lunch out of his backpack and saying something about how he has no appetite for the food his mother suddenly decided to start making for him, and then turning to Kei and saying, “You should eat it, Tsukki! Since you buy that bread every day anyway.”

Kei’s first instinct is to reject it, and the words have already started to form around his lips when he catches sight of Yamaguchi and the brightness behind his pupils.

It’s not rare, Yamaguchi being happy around Kei. He gets ecstatic over the strangest and most simple things: going over to Kei’s house, as many times as he’s done it already; tagging along when he picks something up at the bookstore; even seemingly having the time of his life when he’s with Kei on a grocery run. But the look in his eyes now isn’t quite the same. Instead, there’s a kind of fragility to it, reminiscent of the times he puffs up his chest and says something he’s afraid to, those things as simple as calling Kei his friend or thanking him for spending time with him.

Kei hates when he gets like that, not because of the happiness but the sheer delicacy of it, so easily breakable from the insecurities he’s bringing with him from a past Kei doesn’t know. He thinks constantly about how to get it through his head that the two of them being close or being friends isn’t any kind of brave declaration; it’s just a fact, and one Yamaguchi doesn’t need to worry over.

That Yamaguchi’s started making him lunch – it’s ridiculous, something completely different from those other situations, probably, but Yamaguchi still has that look on his face, so Kei says, “Fine,” and takes the container from his hands.

It’s a lot, Yamaguchi’s expectant gaze as he opens it to find some awful spinach and organ meat dish Kei thinks he might have invented, the anxiety laced into Yamaguchi’s voice when he lies, “Tell me if there’s something you don’t like about it! I— uh, it’s my mom’s first time making it, so…”

Viscerally, Kei doesn’t want to eat it. The few times his mother tried to give him liver, he picked it out and pushed it to the side. But Yamaguchi has that look in his eyes, and Kei can’t stop thinking about those times he gets nervous about calling him his friend, so he takes a bite and it— isn’t as bad as it could be. “Use less salt next time,” he says. “But it’s… good. Thank you.”

Good doesn’t completely describe it. The taste of it is different and strange, but it also tastes like something. Not like the bread he’s gotten so used to it’s gone flavorless.

So. Not good, not really. But when Kei calls it that, Yamaguchi smiles, so he thinks to himself that it’s close enough.

❀ - ❀ - ❀

Yamaguchi doesn’t stop making him lunch, and Kei gets used to it. It makes him happy, Kei thinks, asking what foods he’s into and bringing in a slightly different unusual lunch every day, so Kei tries not to mind how strange it is and just treats him to french fries whenever they go out after school.

It’s funny, actually, how much Yamaguchi chides Kei about his own health when the only thing he’s ever seen him eat is french fries. But Yamaguchi isn’t normal, and the kind of person who gets nervous about a lot of things, so if he isn’t comfortable eating around Kei, he doesn’t want to push it.

Still, the quiet moments when they’re in the same room, when Yamaguchi’s not paying attention to him and occupying the whole of his consciousness – times his mind drifts during class, when they’re doing homework in the library together, after Yamaguchi’s fallen asleep on his couch – the thought floats back to him. That as much as Yamaguchi’s somehow grown on him since they’ve met, the half a year where Yamaguchi forced himself into Kei’s life and ingrained himself in it so deeply he can’t remember what it was like before, he’s still abnormal. Still peculiar. And still hiding something.

Kei’s never been the kind of person to pry into people’s business, never understood why people would be upset by someone they care about keeping secrets if it’s harmless, or not something they need to know. Whatever happened to Yamaguchi, whatever’s happening to him, if he can handle it without Kei’s help, or if he prefers to, Kei is fine with it. Kei will let him. But he can’t stop himself from noticing.

The obvious uneasiness Yamaguchi has around other people, the one that it took weeks of constantly being with Kei to get over just around him. The way he’s never seen him eat anything more than one or two fries and then shove the rest of it in his backpack. His uncommon pallor and the way he avoids going outdoors. How even in the dead of summer, he’s always wearing his oversized yellow windbreaker and dopey bucket hat.

It takes too long to click, partially because Kei’s been trying not to think about it and mostly because the conclusion he comes to is so unbelievable he feels like an idiot for even thinking of it. It’s stupid, too, the way it comes to him; one night, his mother leaves the evening news on too long, and the new awful paranormal drama starts and Kei catches sight of the scene where the protagonist finds out the boy she has a crush on is a vampire.

And – _vampire_. Kei must be at a loss, that he’s finding answers in terrible teen dramas, but he isn’t at a loss, also. He wasn’t looking for an answer. One just presented itself to him, and it was so obviously true that Kei couldn’t deny it.

It makes sense, then, all of Yamaguchi’s strange aversions; to people, to sunlight. But not only that. Another thing that Kei never thought about too hard because it’d never been a big enough problem to care. There are times Yamaguchi invites Kei to his apartment – not every time, but enough times that Kei noticed – when he falls asleep watching television, mid-afternoon and longer than he ever has. He’d chalked it up to uncommon exhaustion, maybe from being around Yamaguchi, but he rarely even takes naps.

It should feel like a betrayal, Kei thinks. That Yamaguchi is a vampire, and only spends time with him to drink his blood. But – Kei knows Yamaguchi at the point, the way he gets nervous, the way he smiles around him and gets happy over the most mundane things. He knows him too well to ever think their friendship is fake. Not to mention how terrible of a liar Yamaguchi is.

If blood is really something Yamaguchi needs to live, he’s not cruel enough to let him die. Especially if it’s Yamaguchi. It isn’t as if Kei feels weaker or anything, anyway.

Still, thinking of that… everything really does make sense. The way Yamaguchi fusses over Kei like he’s some kind of sickly kid; running to Kei’s side and grabbing his arm to steady him when he so much as leans back. The lunches, too. Kei almost wants to laugh; all those weird and awful foods he kept making for him, organ meats and leafy greens. It wasn’t strange taste; he wanted him to keep his strength up.

It’s bizarre, the situation he’s in, but Kei can’t stop thinking about it. _Cute_.

❀ - ❀ - ❀

Yamaguchi won’t stop jiggling his leg, and Kei knows exactly why.

After finding out about Yamaguchi, Kei resolved to keep it to himself. There’s a reason Yamaguchi didn’t want to tell him, and since it doesn’t change anything and isn’t harming anyone, Kei has no reason to confront him over it.

Still, sitting next to Yamaguchi on the couch in his apartment, listening to the unending shaking of his voice, watching his restless movement, that terrified look in his eyes, Kei can’t help but rethink it. Maybe if Yamaguchi knew he knew, he wouldn’t have to act like this.

“Do you, uh— Do you want to watch a movie? Or you can… Maybe there’s something on TV! The nature channel is— Well, you like it more than me, so—”

It’s too much then, seeing him like that. “Yamaguchi,” Kei says, “you don’t have to be so nervous. You’re going to drink my blood, aren’t you?”

Yamaguchi freezes completely then, just stares for too long, and suddenly, Kei hears himself. _You’re going to drink my blood_. It’s that Kei is sitting in Yamaguchi’s apartment then, and as much as he rationalized the idea to himself already, as much as it makes sense, he just called his best friend a _vampire_.

Yamaguchi, who smiles too much, gets nervous around strangers, and never goes anywhere without his favorite bucket hat. A vampire.

It’s that, but then Yamaguchi stutters out, “Tsukki, what are you— what are you talking about? Vampires aren’t— That’s really strange, you know, I always thought… I always since you’re so smart, you—” and Kei remembers.

“You’re a bad liar,” he says, sighing a little. “It doesn’t matter. I figured it out a while ago. If you need to drink my blood, I don’t mind. You make me lunch every day, after all. If you think about it, it isn’t that different.”

“It is!” Yamaguchi insists almost immediately, and then what Kei said sinks in and his eyes go wide. “Wait, you really… you really know? You don’t hate me?”

“Were you really worried about that?” Kei asks. “Of course I don’t hate you. You’re my best friend.”

Yamaguchi looks down then and rubs the back of his neck, badly hiding the grin overtaking his face. “When I was middle school, before we moved here, there was someone— I.. guess I was just… scared.”

“I’m not someone from middle school, Yamaguchi. I know you get insecure, but I wish you wouldn’t worry about things like that,” Kei replies. “It’d be stupid of me to start hating you after being friends with you so long.”

Yamaguchi is quiet for a while. Kei can still see the edges of a grin on his dimple his cheeks, but he starts to wonder if he was too harsh. He’s never been good at things like this, he knows.

Eventually Kei coughs and leans forward, rubs the side of his neck. “Well, you were going to eat, weren’t you? What do you need? My neck?”

Yamaguchi’s eyes widen as he looks up at Kei, and his cheeks color. “You’re, uh— You’re supposed to, but it’s kind of embarrassing, so I never really— I just drink from the wrist! It’s a little harder, but—”

“Drink from here, then,” Kei says, tapping the side of his neck. “I don’t mind.”

“Oh, uh… Okay,” Yamaguchi says. “I don’t really know if this, uh, hurts, since everyone’s always been asleep, but, uh… just tell me if you need to stop and I will!”

“Of course, Yamaguchi.”

Yamaguchi laughs a little anxiously then and scoots towards him. They’re closer now, closer than they’ve ever been, and Kei can feel his breath on his skin. The weight of what Kei offered him – the closeness of teeth into the skin of his neck – sinks in and heat finds its way to his face.

Embarrassing. That’s the word Yamaguchi used. Not the best word, maybe, but not inaccurate, either.

Right before Yamaguchi leans in, he pauses, and Kei can feel his gaze move towards his face. “Thanks, Tsukki,” he says, voice soft. “No one’s ever done this for me before, so I really— It means a lot.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Kei says, and maybe he would have said more, but Yamaguchi sinks his teeth into him then and his mind clears completely.

It doesn’t hurt. Kei’s never been squeamish and it’s nothing more than a small pinch, nothing worse than losing blood from a needle, and even though Kei feels a little lighter, it’s not that feeling that’s occupying the whole of his mind.

Yamaguchi’s lips are slightly chapped where they touch his skin, and his body is pleasantly cool against his. Kei can feel the softness of his hair against his jawline, the piece that always sticks up brushing his cheek, and he can’t believe he’s never wanted to run his fingers through his hair. Thinks about doing it now.

They stay like that for a while, Kei unable to stop thinking about how close Yamaguchi is to him now, stretched over his chest, and then Yamaguchi pulls back. “I’m— I’m done,” he says, too quietly.

There’s more color in Yamaguchi’s face now than Kei’s ever seen, and he can’t help but follow Yamaguchi’s tongue as he licks his lips. The place where he’d been curled over his chest tingles, and he feels a little bit lightheaded, though not from blood loss.

“Tsukki… Tsukki! Are you okay?” Yamaguchi asks, suddenly stressed, and Kei realizes he hasn’t spoken since Yamaguchi left the side of his neck.

“I’m fine.” Kei feels his cheeks heat again, but he thinks Yamaguchi is too preoccupied to notice. “You worry about me too much.”

“Sorry, Tsukki,” Yamaguchi apologizes insincerely, but Kei doesn’t mind it. Yamaguchi’s mood is brighter now that he’s eaten, he thinks, and he doesn’t mind if that means he has to put up with teasing. It’s better than his overbearing nervousness.

They just sit there awkwardly then, but Yamaguchi is still grinning, high off something like relief or maybe Kei’s blood, and then he clears his throat.

“You know, I… Do you remember when we met?” Yamaguchi asks. “When I talked to you in homeroom, the first day?”

“It wasn’t that long ago,” Kei says, and the words stun him, too, a little. It feels like more than a lifetime, now.

“Yeah… I guess it just feels like I’ve known you for a long time! Or I… wish I did. Uh, but what I was going to say is… When I talked to you then, you were just reading that magazine alone, it… kind of reminded me of how I was, after what happened in middle school. I think I thought you were lonely! I know you weren’t now, though, but… even though you weren’t, you’re really— I’ve never met anyone like you, so… I’m really glad it was you that I went up to back then.”

The things he’s saying right now. They’re wrong, Kei thinks to himself. Even if he never would have said it, even if he didn’t even realize it, he was lonely, before Yamaguchi barreled into his life. Or at least, worse off than he is now.

The way Kei worries when Yamaguchi almost kills himself stressing over nothing. How he’s never minded Yamaguchi tagging along with him anywhere he goes, how he feels empty when he isn’t there. The fullness in his chest when Yamaguchi smiles at him.

Looking at Yamaguchi now, Kei thinks to himself that he’d give anything to communicate these feelings to him, to make him understand. But they’re so big, too big for a moment that’s big already, and Kei still isn’t sure how to convey them, so instead, he says, “I am, too.”

Yamaguchi smiles then, and in that moment, the satisfaction that Kei finds between the curves of his lips is more than enough.

**Author's Note:**

> the fic was written on the basis that 1) if yamaguchi was a vampire he'd feel real bad every time he drank someone's blood and 2) if yamaguchi was a vampire, tsukishima would figure it out. hope you enjoyed it :''')
> 
> thanks for reading!! if it's possible for you, i'd appreciate a lot if you could leave feedback, here or by letting me know on [twitter](https://twitter.com/jailsgrr/) if that's what you prefer! thanks either way though 💕💕💕


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